There are a lot of different strategies for link building. The reality is that there really isn’t a single, ultimate link building strategy. For some, one strategy will work better than others depending on your personality and the amount of time you put into the link building. Also, as time goes on, different strategies tend to trend as being more or less effective. Some strategies work well for a while and then general attitude of people starts to change and so your strategy has to change.

Planning Your Church’s Link Building Strategy:
My advice is to look around for different strategies and brainstorm for your own ideas and give them a shot. See which ones work best for you and which you enjoy (or at least don’t dread). After all, if you hate doing something, you’re not going put the time and effort you would need to in order to succeed. Go with what works and try new ideas as well. It’s usually better to have multiple link building strategies anyway as you create a more natural link profile. Remember, the Internet is always changing, so for the best results it good to keep trying new strategies.

Too Good To Be True:
Link building has become the cornerstone of SEO and so there are tons of link building programs out there promising the world. These are the get-rich-quick schemes of the link building world. But just like your father probably told you when you were a kid, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This is especially true in the link building world because even if the scheme does work for now, Google will most likely find out about it and find a way to devalue links…or worse. So, avoid the schemes and focus on tried and true, natural link building strategies.

All Natural Ingredients:
All natural and organic are the craze in food, but they are also great in links. Natural links are links that you get without coercing the person into giving you the link or you putting the link on their site without their knowledge. A good example of a natural link is if you find an article you like and you link to it on your website. Google loves natural links. In Google’s dream world, the only links people would ever get are natural links. Of course that’s not reality and there are effective, less-than-natural ways to get links, but the safest links are natural links because you can be pretty sure they will never be devalued by Google.

Link Building without Link Building:
Finally, the most efficient way to build links is to find a strategy you like which does not require you to work to get each individual link and is done by something you already do. That’s one of the greatest benefits of blogging. You may have a church blog which posts interesting ministry related articles, Bible studies, devotionals, etc. This is something that is good to do even if you don’t care about links because it can minister to people and help people to grow in their faith. But if you can write really good blog articles, people will link to them. Bonus! You can end up doing something you were already going to do, get links in the process, and never once think about the links you are getting. Link building without actually thinking about link building. Pretty cool.

Final Thoughts:
Link building is an important part of your online church marketing strategy. The first step is to create a plan. So, to recap…

Do a little brainstorming and research and come up with multiple link building ideas.

Choose link building strategies that you enjoy or at least don’t detest.

Engage in multiple link building strategies at the same time.

Don’t settle on a single link building strategy. The Internet is changing all the time. New link building methods will arise and old ones will die out.

Focus as much as possible on natural link building methods.

The most efficient link building strategies are the ones where you would have done the work anyway and where you don’t have to think about each link.

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Church Marketing Online is dedicated helping churches reach the people in their communities through the Internet. We do this by explaining search engine marketing for churches, discussing social media and how it can be used by churches, and facilitating conversations about other online church marketing ideas. The CMO blog is here to educate, discuss Internet evangelism and outreach, and offer church growth resources.